Complete Set of 8 Anti-Soviet Satirical Postcards in Original Publisher's Folder
Helsinki: Ab. F. Tilgmann Oy, 1930. Item #1456
Reproduktsiia satiricheskikh kartin K. B. Grenkhagen. 1-ia seriia (8 siuzhetov). [Reproduction of Satirical Paintings by K. B. Grönhagen. Series 1 (8 postcards)]. Complete set of 8 chromolithographic postcards with original printed folder. Each card 14.2 × 9.2 cm. Text in Russian on versos.
A strikingly rare and complete set of anti-Soviet satirical postcards created by Karl Gustav Ferdinand Grönhagen (in Russian, Karl Bernardovich Grenkhagen; 1865–1944), a Russian-Finnish writer, publicist, retired military officer, and artist. Grönhagen, known as a contributor to the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary and the author of the widely circulated travel guide Sputnik po Finliandii, fled to Finland after the 1917 Revolution. In 1930, he published this powerful visual and poetic condemnation of Bolshevism in Helsinki through the publisher “Ab. F. Tilgmann Oy.”
The set includes eight vividly illustrated chromolithographic postcards, each accompanied by Grönhagen’s original satirical verses printed on the reverse. Rendered in an expressive, grotesque style, the images depict Soviet leaders—most recognizably Lenin and Trotsky—in scenes of moral decay, political brutality, and bloodshed. The imagery ranges from caricatures of debauched party elites to horrific portrayals of torture and execution, culminating in a symbolic depiction of Russia's suffering under the Soviet regime. One of the most notorious cards shows Lenin seated before a fireplace adorned with a sculpture of a devil, under the inscription “Zdesʹ ia tvoi rab, no tam–ty moi” (“Here I am your slave, but there—you are mine”), alongside a poem attributing to Lenin the embodiment of demonic forces and destruction.
This Russian-language edition is of extraordinary rarity—significantly scarcer than the Finnish-language version. Complete sets with the original publisher’s folder, as present here, are virtually unobtainable on the market. The condition is remarkably well-preserved for such ephemeral material: the cards are clean, without markings, and the original folding cover, which bears the title and price (15 Finnish markka), shows only minor handling wear.
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